Remember the Smena 8M ? A Soviet Camera that combined a killer lens, 50’s shutter and cheap plastic body ? Well the folks at LOMO didn’t stop with the Smena 8M, refining it further finally producing a last gasp bad boy – the Smena 35 (Смена-35). But whilst there is a lot of improvements there are issues to be aware of.

Polaroid produced some of the most Iconic cameras of the latter half of the 20th century and were the pioneers of instant film decades before the term instax was dreamed up. However this isn’t one of those and actually is just a ‘roid in name only. Does it stack up as just another cheap basic camera or is there more to meet the eye ?

The Olympus Trip 35 is one of the most revered compacts ever made. Sadly Olympus had a bad habit of producing some decidedly basic & sometime awful cameras trading on its name. However not all are that bad But has this plastic trip the potential to be Olympus’s Lomo ? Continue reading The Olympus Lomo ? – The Olympus Trip 500 Review→

,Although practical photography dates back almost 2 centuries for much of its early days it was in the hand of the inventors, scientists and entrepreneurs. Then as now, we loved having our photo taken. But in the 19th century that meant a trip to a expensive professional photographer.

As I commented in my Annual review 2017 saw the demise of the Poundland film run that kept most of in the UK well stocked. As my last rolls of Poundland AVP200 dwindle, I thought it might be worth museing over the alternatives and the fact that actually once you add in processing you can shoot for cheaper now than you could do using Poundland film. Continue reading New Year, New Budget film choices→

Most film photographers dream of owning a Leica, if even just for the Kudos. Social services got a bit upset when I tried to swap one of the weans for a mint M6 (with lens I hasten to add). But there are a few routes to owning a Leica for less financial pain. One is where this Minolta kinda comes in if you get a working ‘un Continue reading Leica Likely ? Minolta Riva/Freedom Zoom 90c review→

As I sit munching the last of the mince pies and watching Bond on the telly (Spectre – not bad if a tad formulistic), it is the traditional time to start to reflect on 2017. A year that has seen both and highs and lows for film shooters.

yup I got another of Ricoh’s YF-20 series. A full review will be coming for this later model that adds a distance focus but this one came with the Data back. Although you can see the standard manual online, I couldn’t find any info about the data back. Having almost wrecked the camera in trying to replace the battery, I click it was quite easy and hopefully this will be of help